WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange Has Cost The Met Police £5.3m During Ecuador Embassy Stay

Julian Assange's prolonged stay in the Ecuadorian Embassy has cost the Metropolitan Police 5.3million, in the 18 months since he entered the building in Knightsbridge.

Police are stationed day and night outside the embassy, where the WikiLeaks founder was granted asylum, ready to arrest Assange, who was set to be extradited to face questioning in Sweden on sexual assault allegations.

Assange claimed that Sweden would extradite him to the US over leaking secret documents. In Sweden, he faces potential rape charges from one woman and sexual assault charges from another, stemming from a visit to Stockholm in 2010.

The most recent estimated cost available for the policing operation outside the Ecuador Embassy is for the period to 31st December 2013, according to an Freedom of Information request sent to the Huffington Post UK by the Metropolitan Police.

The estimated total cost of policing the Ecuadorian Embassy between June 2012 and the end of December 2013 is 5.3 million, of which 4.4 million is police officer pay.

Around 900,000 has been paid out in police overtime costs, as a direct result of the deployments at the Ecuadorian Embassy. The cost to the taxpayer has been just under 10,000 every day.

Assange could potentially stay in his Ecuadorian Embassy bolt-hole until 2022 when the statute of limitations on his extradition request expires. This, at current costs, would mean 36.5m is spent on policing.

This month, Swedish MPs called on the prosecutors in the case to travel to question Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy, saying they should accept that Assange will not be leaving the embassy voluntarily.

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WikiLeaks' Julian Assange Has Cost The Met Police £5.3m During Ecuador Embassy Stay